Comments from dave-bronx™

I should have said ‘4 screens’. The Manhattan Twin, though I forget the name of it at the time, had regular porn on one side and gay on the other. The D.W.Griffith was the Cine Malibu and played porn. Closer to 3rd Ave on the north side of the street next to McCreedys shoe store was the Lido East, another porn house. After it closed they made a Mexican restaurant called Zona Rosa in there, and now I think it is a carpet store.

As far as changing the zoning back to allow theatres, I would imagine it would have to be done the same way as it was done earlier – the residents would have to get the local community board to prod the city council to make the changes. A developer of a large project may also be able to petition for a zoning change on a particular piece of property.

br91975 – As I recall from conversations with Mr. Geller, the architect of the Cinema 1 2 3, the zoning area applied to the area of 1st Ave. west to Madison, and 57th St north to 79th St. The First & 62nd theatre sits on the corner, yet the entrance and address is on the side-street, instead of the more desirable avenue.

When we were renovating the C1&2 in ‘87, the projection booth for the third theatre was to have been centered on a mezzannine above the auditorium entrance. This was disallowed by the DOB as it was adding square-footage to the building. We were allowed to put the booth on a raised platform 5’ off the floor since the space below, a little more than 4' high, was not considered “usable” space, therefore it did not add square-footage.

sethkino, there will be no new movie theatres in the neighborhood due to the fact that in the late 70s or early 80s the area was re-zoned to prevent it, at the insistance of the local community board. At that time there was concern about the area becoming another Times Square, the 4 theatres on 59th St. were all porn operations. The new zoning probibited any new theatres from built, and the existing theatres could not add any square-footage to their premises, and if any of the existing theatres were heavily damaged due to fire or some other disaster they were not allowed to be re-built. As far as I know, that zoning is still in effect.

The last time I was there this was a working-class neighborhood, old, but well-kept, not far from downtown Pgh via the Fort Pitt Tunnel or Liberty Tubes. Potomac Ave is a very steep street coming up from Banksville Road – so steep in fact, that there is no sidewalk – it is a stairway next to the avenue up to the top of the hill. And TomB is correct – parking is a big problem in the area.

Pacific Theatres, owners of the Cinerama Dome in L.A. also owns the Consolidated Amusements chain in Hawaii, so the movement of equipment from this theatre to the Dome was basically an internal transfer.

Pacific Theatres, owners of the Cinemrama Dome in L.A. also owns the Consolidated Amusements chain in Hawaii, so the movement of equipment from this theatre to the Dome was basically an internal transfer.

BTW, they also changed the marquee signage (but thats a minor problem) – the Cinema 1 Cinema 2 Cinema 3 along the side is gone and replaced with Cinema 1, 2, 3 along the top edge in thin letters that you can barely see from across the street. The Cinema 1 2 3 is the last owned property City Cinemas has in New York – the other 3 are leased. And the primo location on Third Ave. opposite Bloomingdales will command huge bucks if it were to come on the market. I wonder if it is possible to get it landmarked as it is now and then order them to restore it?

Although nobody will admit it, there is a mistake on the large mural in the Loews Lincoln Square theatre in Manhattan. It is a painting of many of the old Loew’s palaces like the Valencia, Kings, etc. There is a Paradise Theatre pictured there, with a conventional marquee, however it is not the Loews Paradise in the Bronx, but the Paradise in Chicago, which was a Balaban & Katz/Publix-Paramount theatre. Many people who have seen it (the painting) assume it’s the Bx Paradise, as did the artist, apparently. Several people I know recently journeyed northward to the Bronx to see THE Paradise for the first time, and when they came back they were all in a frenzy – “they tore the marquee off the front of it!”. When I say it never had a marquee, just flat signs on the wall, they tell me that the painting in Lincoln Square shows it with a marquee.

—BULLETIN—
Well, City Cinemas is at it again – they are destroying the Cinemas. I went past there last night and the blue tile area above the windows (see the photo above) has been plastered/stuccoed/cemented over – it is now just plain white and no evidence of the columns rising to the roofline. Also, from outside it appears that the copper ‘artichoke’ chandeliers in the upper lobby are missing – God knows what these clowns are doing to the place and what other horrors they may have committed on that building.

I am trying to get in contact with an insider I know to find out what the hell they are doing….

This was a built as a single theatre and after General Cinemas nearby Westgate Cinema City (4 screens) opened in 1971, the Fairview was split in half. I was never inside but from the size of the building I think it had more than 800 seats.

Aren’t metal detectors standard equipment at all National Amusements' theatres these days? The Whitestone and Concourse theatres in the Bx has them, and I’m told the ENY Bkln and Jamaica Qns theatres also have them. Apparently NA feels that metal detectors and a shooting or riot now and then are just a normal costs of doing business.

When I left Michigan in 1977 it was still a single. General Cinema split it in 1978, and Goodrich took it over in 1984, at which time it flip-flopped between a first-run and bargain house, depending on the prevailing market conditions in the area.